Monday, August 18, 2014

I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with taking pictures in
Africa over the years. I have observed more than a few altercations
with Africans objecting to their picture being taken by North
Americans. I encourage guests to get permission before snapping
photos. Yet, I feel I need to put photos up every week on this blog;
every quarter I try to include pictures in my prayer letter; and every
time I do a presentations in North America, I want to use pictures,
which convey "more than a thousand words."

The
problem comes through the idea that people want to see (or perhaps more
viscerally respond to) pictures that connote need, heartache, hunger,
disease, or poverty.

I'm
taking a class now on culture and global change, and it described
pictures of African babies with swollen bellies and flies hovering
around them as "pornographic." Really, I thought? That is a very
strong word. But looking up the dictionary definitions, pornography is
"obscene pictures with little artistic merit;" obscene is defined as
"offensive to morality or decency." The author of the book goes on to
say this:

Photography combines
voyeurism and control because visual images are taken by the powerful of
the powerless; the subjects of the photograph are transformed into
objects by virtue of being 'shot.' So photography can produce the
colonized and the powerless as fixed realities: entirely knowable and
visible, but equally 'other,' irreconcilably different: the objects of
desire and derision. (Young 1990: 143).

These
pictures are negative images which often lead to the wrong type of
development, focused on charity, stripping of dignity, and development
of dependency. And wrong development has been pushed by many for many
years Development that objectifies and paints a helpless, hopeless
picture. Development that expresses need without expressing innate
capacity. Development that damages rather than restores - often by well intentioned people who wanted to help but do so with a
short term perspective and maybe even self-serving in making ourselves
feel good about what we are doing.

Contrast these
pictures to this advertisement below by Christian Aid, where a young
woman is on a bike, a national doing something positive in
her community.This is a positive
image in which there is a name given to the person, she is working, there is
mobility, a sense of community, and the need for health care which is
universal.This is a great picture of a glowing empowered subject: independent, competent, and self-determined,
instead of an object of development who is hopeless and despairing.

So
what to do with this dilemma? I want people to see a positive, hopeful
Africa. But I also need to raise funds. I want people's hearts to be
moved by the positive, sustainable change that we see in the work that
we do. Yet pictures of classes or pictures of businesses are not as
evocative as pictures of orphans or orphanages. The challenge to myself
is not to objectify people and justify my behavior by trying to raise
funds for a good ministry. [Michael reminded me of the Benny Hinn story
where he took a sad-looking boy, stood in front of a dilapidated
building, with a makeshift orphanage sign, and raised a bunch of money. I
wish I could say that I haven't experienced similar stories across
Africa. Ask me sometime to share what I think about orphanages in
Africa because of these experiences.] And my challenge to all of us is
to be careful how quickly our emotions are moved by a picture - make sure that the brain has a chance to keep pace with the emotions; and if there is an opportunity to travel internationally, be careful in how those pictures are taken or presented. And feel free to hold me accountable if you catch me drifting toward bad development!

Bob Reed

What does it mean to be a "Reed in the Wind?"

From Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey:

The Virtue of Flexibility

Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.

Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.

Paying Attention to the Wind

"The wind blows where it wills." That was Jesus, who compared the spirit of God to the wind. The Reeds have followed the Wind from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Monrovia, Liberia, to Accra, Ghana, then to Kitale, Kenya. Now the work of Discipling Marketplace Leaders is spreading through West, East, and Northern Africa, as well as to Central America. Join Renita as she still seeks to understand what it means to be "shaken by the Wind."